There’s a church in Rome that is one of the evidences that some pages of art history books should be rewritten. Near the Pantheon, the architectural decoration of the chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena arose in fact as the early and original contribution from Rome to Rococo art, showing how its authentic Roman soul connected with its international one.
![Giuseppe Vasi, Convento dei Ministri degli Infermi e Chiesa di S. Maria Maddalena [...], engraving, 1756](https://www.milestonerome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Vasi-Santa_Maria_Maddalena.jpg)
Opening time: everyday. The religious Masses on festive days are at 9.30 am and 10.30 am (in Portuguese language at: 11.30 am and 7.00 pm); on workdays at 8.00 am and 7.00 pm.
Tickets: free
Organization: Chierici Regolari Ministri degli Infermi (Camilliani)
Website: vicariatusurbis.org
The origins of “Roman Rococo”
It all began between the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century: the fundamental artistic milieu was characterized by various trends, like the birth of the Borrominismo [1] and the evolution of the Roman ornamental intaglio carving in applied arts started with Johann Paul Schor (known in Italy as Giovan Paolo Schor, Innsbruck, 1615 – Rome, 1674), great decorator belonging to Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s workshop and also collaborator of Pietro da Cortona, who contributed to the frames decoration of the commemorative frescoes on the vault of the Galleria Colonna. [2]
In 1698, Filippo Passarini (1638 - 1698) published in Rome one of his most important treatises dealing with the new ornamentation inventions in architecture and intaglio carving which could be useful for silversmiths, carvers, embroiderers and other professionals (Nuove invenzioni d’ornamenti d’architettura e d’intagli diversi utili ad argentieri, intagliatori, ricamatori ed altri professori delle buone arti del disegno). This publication constituted a sort of handbook collecting engravings where Passarini codified the typology of wood décor in Rome at the end of the 17th century, for example with the image of the rear part of a carriage.
The intaglio carving turned out to be the crucial element in architectural decoration. The applied arts became the arts laying the foundations for all the “major” artistic expressions and Schor’s decorative typology evolved itself towards shapes where the naturalistic characterization mainly get lost.
Rome and the Rococo architectural decoration
The connection between decoration and architecture is the main characteristic expressing the values of Rococo art and the argument about the evolution of architectural decoration as well as the relationship between architecture in Rome and Rococo in general is much more complex than commonly thought. [3]
Rococo can be considered as an essentially international phenomenon, because its birth and dissemination were closely connected both to the circulation of figurative repertoires widespread among artisans across Europe and to mutual exchanges of porcelain, goldsmithing and carving works. [3]
Rome was involved and reached by the international Rococo influence: this can be especially spotted in the interior décor and refurbishment of noble apartments, where Roman original contribution gave birth to what can be uniquely and properly defined as “Roman Rococo” [3]. For example, if we focus our attention on the consolles alternated with the armchairs inside the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, we can see at least one of them which has all of the features of the typical decoration in 18th century French applied arts, mainly characterized by the presence of the asymmetric element. Although quantitatively scarce, the interior decoration in 18th century Rome is really meaningful, due to its connections with both the Roman tradition and France.
There’s also a series of studies by German scholar Georg Weise who has reaffirmed the important role of Italian mid-16th and early 17th centuries decoration at the origins of Rococo. [4] Therefore, we can’t assume that the origin of Rococo art is uniquely French, but it also had in Rome its creative contribution, stimulated by the contemporary European trends. [3]
From Roman interior to exterior décor
As we’ve explained earlier, in 18th century Rome the intaglio carving decoration was also a decoration which received the bequest of Baroque legacy, hailing from the evolution begun with Giovan Paolo Schor and gradually developed through Passarini and others towards the shapes of the façade and wooden choir of the chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, which represents a peculiar aspect of the Rococo architectural decoration. With this decorative intervention, we witness the passage from the consideration of the architectural conception of the interior décor to the exterior architecture of the façade conceived as an interior wall to be decorated, which gives it a craftsmanship aspect. [3] Even if it’s often considered as French ornamental design, [5] the kind of ornamentation we can see in the stucco decorations of the church façade, made with pseudo-asymmetric shapes, is rather an evolution from the Roman ornamental intaglio carving, dealing also with German and Austrian input. For example, the early adoption of the typology of the asymmetric cartouche suggests that the façade decoration isn’t totally dependent from French models. [3]
The chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena façade
The story of the chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena is long because its building was begun by Carlo Fontana and at the end of the 17th century a façade was built by Giulio Carlo Quadri, who set up a front structure characterized by a slight central concavity and a niche at the top, according to a clear Borrominian movement.
For several decades the façade was left rustic and in July 1735, on the occasion of the feast of the titular saint Mary Magdalene, it was covered with an accurate “apparatura” (ephemeral structure) made of tapestries. [3] However, around the same year, Emanuele Rodriguez Dos Santos and Domenico Barbiani started the final works, applying the plaster and a Rococo stucco decoration in relief on the rustic surface, without changing the 17th century structure. [6]
Emanuele Rodriguez Dos Santos (ca. 1702 – Rome, 1764) was a Portuguese architect who accomplished other works in Rome and in the nearby, but in this case he probably only had the role of supervisor (a sort of site manager). His presence at Santa Maria Maddalena is documented at least until 1734 and the moldings show in fact some stylistic analogies with other documented works by the architect. [7]
Domenico Barbiani (1714 - 1777), Italian carver, designed the decoration of the moldings and the stucco capitals of the upper order, because those ones in the lower order were already accomplished in Travertine between 1696 and 1698 following Quadri’s drawing. [3]
With Barbiani, the concept of the connection between architecture and applied arts becomes clear. As a carver, Barbiani treated the decoration of the church façade as if it concerned a work of wooden intaglio. The whole façade decoration seems in fact to draw direct inspiration from the Rococo consolles. It appears as made of wood but how is it possible if it is entirely made of stucco? The molds for the stucco were made of wood and were cut in negative shapes by the carvers, then applied with plaster on the wall by the stucco workers. In this way, we literally have a transfer of the wood carving motifs because the carvers produced the molds as well. The workshops of carvers and carpenters had deep connections with the architects at least since the previous century, and there were also several architects who provided furniture projects. [3]
The decoration continued to show the Borrominian reminiscence, that we can attribute not only to Quadri’s structure but also to other new components as the portal structure, decorated with shelf-holding cherub heads on both sides and broken lines. A close-up look at the façade reveals the complex play of concavities and convexities in the succession of tympanums levels. [3] There’s also an amount of decorative elements, as Borrominian festoons and little heads on both sides of the niches, broken pediments and cartouches. These last ones are citations of the 18th century Roman wooden intaglio, as the much complex portal, whose upper corners are decorated with little angels and a series of Borrominian elements in the niches.
In the lower order, the Rococo cartouches under the inferior niches are characterized by asymmetric flamboyant structures, broken lines and Borrominian elements as the cherubs and curves.
In the upper order, the unusual cartouches display volute-like shapes enriched with leaves, interwoven bands and segmented lines typical of interior décor. The refined decorative elements of the aedicule above the window as well as the interwoven bands and flowers can’t be found anywhere else in Rome and descends from the German architectural decoration. In particular, the terminal basin atop of the façade is decorated with elements from Austrian milieu, as the lines interwoven with a central little flower. The decoration with bands, called “Bandelwerk”, quickly spread in central Europe in the 18th century in carving, furniture and architectural structures. [3]
The chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena façade represents an unicum in 18th century Rome outdoor architecture [3]. It’s true that its architectural structure still presents a distinction in two concave orders, quite common in Rome at that time, but it’s really the decorative profusion over the façade which gives the particular Rococo tone to the whole church. [3] There aren’t other buildings displaying the façade typology of the chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome and the invention must be attributed to a carver as Domenico Barbiani, [8] [9] who freely revealed his inclination to experimentation and his eclectic talent. [3]
The wooden choir
Shortly after the decoration of the façade, the same author Domenico Barbiani designed the wooden choir which is located on the counter-façade of the church and enshrines a German pipe organ by Hans Conrad Werle, inaugurated on Saturday 21 July 1736. [3]
The choir was executed in two distinct phases: the first one happened between 1729 and 1732 and involved the upper part of the artwork at the height of the cornice, while the lower part was completed around 1737. [3]
The lower choir displays a dynamic pyramidal composition adorned with an opulent gilded wood intaglio carving, also highlighted by the position of the white allegorical figures made of lacquered wood. The gilding and the overall painting decoration was carried out by Antonio Cataldi with the collaboration of Andreini for the sections painted in false-marble. [3]
Barbiani dedicated to the façade an idea and set up analogous to the applied arts because in the wooden choir we can find the same decorative details as those one displayed on the façade and the recurring concept of asymmetry. For example, the façade and the choir share the bands motif and the harmony between the central cartouche in the choir and the cartouches under the niches in the upper order of the façade. [3]
The sacristy
This room was built in 1734 following the project by Emanuele Rodriguez Dos Santos. Designated as refectory of the Camillian seminary until 1738, the room was converted into sacristy on the occasion of the process of canonization of San Camillo (1743/1746). [3]
It’s possible that the architect Francesco Rosa supervised the overall decoration of the Sagrestia della Maddalena, even if a considerable autonomy was probably left to painters and carvers. [3]
The decoration and furnishing coexist in a harmonious unity of space and colors [10] and represent an indoor permeable space, open on one side thanks to three real windows, which are recalled by the trompe l’oeil on the opposite side wall. The rectangular plan of the sacristy is hidden by the presence of four wooden curvilinear elements on each corner. Above, a painted balustrade is cut out of the sky, letting the natural space with blue colors and luxuriant flowers vases pour into the room. The ceiling was painted around 1738 in fresco and tempera by Gerolamo Pesce (1684-1759), Carlo Maratta’s pupil, who depicted San Camillo in glory with San Filippo Neri. [3]
Another painter maybe of Emilian origin, Domenico Vellani, was the author of the perspectives and ornamentation of all the compartments alternated to the six hutches on the side walls. The painting decoration was thus separated according to genres, as commonly happened in the 18th century: Gerolamo Pesce was appointed the figurative work, including the putti under the painted balustrade, whereas the perspectival frame and the trompe l’oeil parts were assigned to Domenico Vellani. [3]
The beautiful wooden furniture was accomplished according to Domenico Barbiani’s project in 1740. The series of wooden hutches constitute the uniform base of the bright space because they’re linked with each other through a stand provided with little doors and characterized by Borrominian alternated shapes comparable to those ones of the façade and the choir of the church. The crowning tympanums of the three couples of hutches painted with false alabaster streaks are strictly correlated with the painted architecture on the wall and the vault. [3]
Misfortune of Rococo
Even if part of the contemporaries appreciated the church, the phenomenon of Rococo received in Italy a deep disapproval by academia and Neoclassic rationality, which expressed a criticism towards the influence of the applied art over the architectural decoration. Giovanni Gaetano Bottari wrote in the third of his dialogues [11] that
those who works as architects […] do as they can, that is bad […] as who is lacking of the basics of making, and gropes their way forward […] as the arabesque adornments by certain wood carvers […] (quelli che fanno da architetti […] fanno come possono, cioè male […] come del fare chi manca del fondamento principale, e va a tastoni […] come il rabescame di certi intagliatori in legno in fare adornamenti […]).
Francesco Milizia defined the façade as “the ultimate distorted taste” (il non plus ultra del gusto stravolto). [12] This negative judgement influenced the following critics and nowadays new researches are necessary to study and definitely confirm the significant contribution of Rome art to the wonderful experience of Rococo.
References
[1] E. Kieven, "Il borrominismo nel tardo barocco," in Borromini e l'universo barocco, R. Bösel and C. L. Frommel, Eds., Milano, Electa, 1999, pp. 119-128.
[2] R. Wittkower, Arte e architettura in Italia. 1600-1750, Torino: Einaudi, 1993 (1958).
[3] A. Marino, La chiesa e il Convento della Maddalena. Rococò romano-rococò europeo, Pescara: Edizioni Tracce, 1995.
[4] G. Weise, "L'Italia e il problema delle origini del "Rococò"," Paragone, vol. V, no. 49, pp. 35-42, 1954.
[5] F. Kimball, The Creation of the Rococo, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1943. Online [accessed October 2016].
[6] A. Marino, ""La decorazione settecentesca della facciata di S. Maria Maddalena: un'occasione per alcune precisazioni sul Rococò romano" in Saggi in onore di Renato Bonelli," Quaderni dell’istituto di storia dell’architettura, vol. II, pp. 789-798, 1990-1992.
[7] A. Donò and A. Marino, "Note su Emanuele Rodriguez Dos Santos, architetto lusitano a Roma," Studi sul Settecento Romano, no. 5, pp. 97-129, 1989.
[8] N. A. Mallory, "The Architecture of Giuseppe Sardi. And the Attribution of the Façade of the Church of the Maddalena," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 83-101, May 1967.
[9] M. Worsdale, "Domenico Barbiani (?) Macchina per l'esposizione del SS. Sacramento," Bollettino dei Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, vol. IV, pp. 301-316, 1983.
[10] A. M. Matteucci, "L’architettura negli Stati della Chiesa," in L’architettura del Settecento, Torino, UTET, 1988, pp. 4-60.
[11] G. G. Bottari, Dialoghi sopra le tre arti del disegno, Napoli: Presso i Simoni, 1772 (1754). Online [accessed October 2016]
[12] F. Milizia, Roma delle belle arti del disegno, Roma: Bassano, 1787. Online [accessed October 2016].
